A service provider may cause multiple items to be simultaneously presented to consumers. Often, such presentation occurs when a consumer accesses a website or a mobile application of the service provider in order to view items, or when the consumer receives the multiple items via another distribution channel, such as electronic mail (e-mail). For example, a deal provider that operates an electronic marketplace for deals may present a list of deals on a webpage.
In any given screen rendering of the webpage, multiple deals may be presented on a single screen rendering, each deal being associated with one or more corresponding items. Such a listing of items may be organized or sorted in various ways, and the manner in which the items are organized/sorted can influence how customers react (i.e., what they click on). In other words, a website may receive more engagement from consumers when a list of items is presented in one way versus another way.
Furthermore, two consecutive items in the list may be regarded as “incompatible” when they are paired together (i.e., when they are presented adjacent to one another, or in close proximity to one another, on a display). For example, a screen rendering may present a first deal for a discount on food/beverages at a restaurant adjacent to a second deal for a discount on a toe fungus removal product. In this illustrative example, it may be undesirable to present the first deal next to the second deal because the two deals may be regarded as “incompatible” when they are paired together due to the fact that many consumers are repulsed by viewing a toe-fungus-removal item next to a food-related item. When consumers are presented with such incompatible item pairings, they can be “turned off” from the service in general (thereby causing consumers to not click on or acquire any of the deals) and/or lose trust in the business providing the services. Thus, new technology that introduces better ways of presenting items to consumers is needed.